


Seven-Colored Life

by remipachu



Category: Touhou Project
Genre: Backstory, F/F, Gen, Minor Character Death, PC-98 Canon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-08-14
Updated: 2014-08-13
Packaged: 2018-02-13 02:17:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,947
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2133342
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/remipachu/pseuds/remipachu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alice Margatroid has had many a life. The first, a short one, as an infant living in Bucharest, Romania. The second, as the adopted daughter of the goddess of a demon realm. And now, a human-turned-youkai magician living in Gensokyo. This is a story of Alice Margatroid's life, and how she grows up. </p><p>Essentially I saw an Alice backstory a few years ago, thought "I can do it better" and tried then. I just restarted it now. Also I want to see how well I can bridge the gap between P-98 and Windows canon (ignoring the extra stage endings of MS). Basically I've wanted to do this for a long while and I'm really hoping I can execute it well. Here's hoping.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Seven-Colored Life

**Author's Note:**

> Trigger warning for death. It's only included to explain why Louise looks so different in stage 4.

A small, abandoned child.

A lonely, curious goddess.

A coincidental, fateful encounter.

That was how the life of a young girl truly began.

It was an ordinary night, in all honesty. The goddess most commonly known as Shinki was out, getting a break from her ordinary life as ruler of the demon realm she created. She was wandering a country called Romania, in the southeastern part of it. She was nearing its capital city, Bucharest, when she spotted a group of people. They were gathered in a circle, surrounding something Shinki couldn't identify. When she approached them, however, the group scattered, leaving the object of their attention alone. The goddess knelt down, examining the thing.

It was a bundle. It appeared to be moving, much to Shinki's surprise. The white cloth covering its contents had a few stains; most were from dirt, but a few were of blood. The ruler of the demon realm picked it up carefully, and unwrapped the fabric.

Inside was a child. It would be more proper to describe her as a baby, or, more accurately, an infant. Somehow, the baby was sleeping. Its breathing was shallow, however, and Shinki knew that it was not well. She, in a sudden fit of maternal feelings, opened a gate to her world. She quickly cast a spell making the child able to breath the air there, and vanished through the portal.

The next several hours of Shinki's life were spent assesing the girl's condition, trying to figure out what to do with her, and ultimately deciding her fate. She called over her chief maid, Yumeko, to help. She didn't seem to be doing too much good, however, and was sent away quickly. The girl seemed to be able to recover quickly in the demon realm's air, and looked to be predisposed to magic. This realization was able to swiftly put an end to Shinki's wondering on what to do with the girl. A warm grin was on her face as she was officially greeted.

“Welcome to Makai, Alice.”

 

 

From then on, the girl known as Alice Margatroid lived in Makai. It took not long for her to recover from the brutality of abandonment. As a matter of fact, she wasn't even aware of being adopted. She grew up very much as a normal girl (as much as one can be normal in a demon's realm). When she was old enough to begin education, Shinki's maid Yumeko was her primary teacher. She learned the ways of Makai, how to defend herself in case of an attack, and basic magic. She also learned to read, write, and do basic math and science. However, although most of her days were filled with learning, she grew very bored with essentially being Makaian royalty. She wasn't allowed to leave the house for fear of her safety, she couldn't speak how she pleased, she literally was not allowed to grow up (there was a spell placed on her at age nine that stopped her aging), there were all sorts of rules she had to follow simply because she was the daughter of the ruler.

And so, naturally, she rebelled.

After her lessons, Alice would sneak down to the library of Pandaemonium to study magic she was not taught. There was a book in there that she called “The Grimoire of Alice”. It, as explained by her mother, was a book containing all the spells Alice had learned, as well as those placed upon her. She was never to touch it. Of course, the girl didn't understand this. It had her name on it, and her spells, so why wasn't it hers? Whenever she tried to get a hold of it, however, it would repel her with a sort of magical barrier. _One day, it will be mine._ Alice vowed.

In her other spare time, she learned the battle art of curtain fire, otherwise known as  _danmaku_ . She would spar with the two witches known as Yuki and Mai. It was they who approached Alice first, offering to teach her battle. Alice accepted eagerly, jumping at the chance to rebel further. They told her that, due to her mother's over-protection, she would likely never need it. But Alice insisted that it was fun, and would perhaps be necessary at one point. Yuki and Mai were dubious of this, but laughed it off and continued training her.

Alice was right. The day after her thirteenth birthday, she heard knews of a group of four heading down to Makai over an “immigration problem”. An ammendment was soon added to the note, saying that only the shrine maiden of Hakurei was after that problem; the others had their own reasons. Shinki reassured Alice that it wouldn't be a problem before receiving an urgen message informing them that the guardian of the entrance to Makai, Sara, had been defeated, along with numerous migrating youkai. Yumeko started fretting over this, and in Shinki's attempt to reassure her, Alice escaped outside the castle. She wanted to contact her friend Louise, but seeing as she was one travelling to Gensokyo, she couldn't. Due to the events of recent, Alice was reasonable worried about her friend, and hoped that she hadn't been exterminated. Of course, hope on its own is not enough to save a life, and Alice soon saw Louise stumbling toward her. The youkai girl looked grievously injured, and her desperation to warn Alice showed in her eyes.

“Louise! What happened?!” Alice cried, catching a falling Louise in her arms.

“Sh-shrine maiden... and youkai...” the injured girl's words were heavily slurred, “Came 'n... bea' me up... tried to... go easy on 'er... she, ah, didn' return the sen'iment... Ge' ready. They're gonna... come 'ere next. Yuki 'n Mai... taught you how to... fight, righ'?” A distant look came in her eyes, and she coughed, blood spraying from her mouth. Alice nodded furiously.

“Are you gonna be okay?” she asked softly.

“D-don' think so...” the youkai's voice was low as she gave a small shake of her head, “Leave me 'ere. Protect yourself. Jus'... remember, Alice, that I... I love you...” Louise's eyes glazed over and her breathing stopped.

“Louise...?” Alice whispered, tears stored in her eyes falling down her cheeks, “LOUISE!!” The human girl's voice rang out in a desperate scream. She shook the body of her friend hard, almost as if trying to wake her up. She threw it down as she stood up quickly. Rising into the air, she wiped the tears off of her face and gathered her strength as best as possible. She quietly vowed to herself that she would avenge the too-soon death of her friend.

“Not so fast, dear,” a whisper came from behind Alice. She whipped around to see what appeared to be the ghost of Louise. She looked almost the same, but now almost all of her was blue. Her hair, the accents on her dress, the ghostly aura that surrounded her, and it even seemed as though her skin was blue. Her eyes glowed red, however, as though concealing a hidden longing for vengeance.

“Go, prepare to fight them,” the ghostly girl urged, her voice seeming a distant echo, “I will again encounter them later. But for now, you must fight them.” A ghost of a smile crossed her face and she floated off. Alice almost started crying again, but with the reassurance of her friend's continued existance, she found reason to go on.

It was a shock when she first saw who would be her opponent. There were four before her, all seeming bored. The defeated, but not dead, bodies of countless youkai and demons they had beaten down. One of them appeared particularly cheery, but was the most covered in blood. Alice stared at them in disbelief as they decided who would fight her. 

“Marisa, you handle her. We'll meet you up ahead,” the green-haired spirit girl demanded. She whispered to her bloodied companion something about going “overboard with that last one”. As they passed by her, Alice almost wanted to punch the overly cheerful one, but refrained out of fear. She turned to face the girl referred to as “Marisa”, who was muttering that Makaians weren't strong.

“Y-you've gone far enough!!” Alice shouted before floating up, “You're overdoing it a bit! Couldn't you be a little less violent?” she knew it was not the blond-haired witch before her that had killed Louise, but she wanted to get her point across that all this was completely unecessary. Marisa's face contorted into a scowl.

“Wow, you've got some nerve!” she retorted angrily.

“Don't try to talk big when you're not even that good at magic!!” Alice came back. She thought that it was a pretty good insult for a witch, but evidently it didn't produce as good of a reaction as she thought.

“Do you wanna try me?” the blond witch challenged. The cocky tone in her voice set Alice on edge, but yet... there was something about the girl she liked.

“I won't let you get away with this!!” is what she wound up saying, however. She launched into an attack that the witch girl immediately began defending on. It seemed as though Alice's earlier claim was right; all she had were basic shooting attacks. Still, they hurt when they were constantly bombarding you. She tried to think of several remarks to make, but couldn't. She kept staring at the girl, looking into her eyes. She felt an odd connection to her, one that she couldn't name or identify.

Soon enough, however, the fight was over. Alice had lost. She hurt all over, and couldn't do anything but cry.

“Apply yourself a little more,” the victor spat, flying off.

“W-wait!” Alice shouted weakly, “What's your name?”

“Marisa Kirisame!” she called back, “Remember it!”

 

Following her defeat, Alice retreated back to Pandaemonium. It took a while to get there, partly because of seeing the bodies of fallen comrades, but mostly because of the injuries inflicted upon her by Marisa. When she finally reached the castle, the closest location was the library. She limped in there and collapsed near the shelf containing the Grimoire of Alice. She pulled a book off the nearest shelf, hoping for instructions on how to bind injuries, or a healing spell, or just SOMETHING. It was a grimoire, so Alice flipped through it as quickly as she could. She finally came to something that could heal her major injuries, and attempted the incantation.

Despite her slurred reading of the spell, it worked. The pain was beginning to subside at a relatively quick pace. It still hurt a bit, however, and the bleeding hadn't stopped. So Alice went and tried to float up to her bedroom unnoticed. She was sucessful (for the most part; minor maids in the castle saw her but didn't report on it) and slipped away. There were ribbons that she had that were thick enough to work as bandages in a pinch, so she used those to staunch the bleeding. She made her way back down to the library to learn some emergency spells in case of the worst, praying all the while that she would have enough time. The spell books she looked in all had the same generic defense spells that she had already learned. She flipped furiously through, attempting to ignore the spreading tremors throughout the mansion.

_No magic-increasing spells? No barrier spells? No get-the-intuders-out-of-my-realm spells?Come on, there has to be something here I can use to help!!_ all these thoughts ran through Alice's mind more than once, her desperation growing as she kept finding nothing. She even didn't stop when she heard maids shouting something about “fire of snow”... or was it “Yuki's fire”? Alice didn't know, and she didn't care. All she knew is that she did NOT have much time, and she needed to learn new magic  _now_ .

It couldn't have been twenty minutes later when the quakes shaking the palace were growing too much to bear. And that heat was awful, too. Alice finally resigned to just lying there and waiting for her imminent demise. There was fire all around her, earthquakes seemingly every two minutes, and nobody around to comfort her. Alice began to cry.

The whole world exploded.

Well, exploded wouldn't actually be the right word for it. There was a large, sudden releasing of energy that rocked the library. Alice jumped up, floating to keep herself away from the falling shelves. Fires raged around her, bookshelves toppled over. The ceiling started to come down when the last of the shelves fell to the ground. Alice flew into a panic. She grabbed at the nearest and most powerful-looking book, and sped off in the direction of her bedroom. When she arrived, it seemed relatively safe. She looked at the book she had grabbed and gasped.

Its cover read “the Grimoire of Alice”.

She flipped through the now-open book, looking rapidly through all the spells that had inscribed themselves on the pages. She felt power flowing through her, and could almost see herself glowing. Her favorite book fell from its place on the wall. She looked at the title, and a spell came to her mind.

_ That's it, I'll create my own Wonderland!  _ Alice thought,  _ I'll be safe!  _ She began chanting the incantations. The world around her glowed. The tremors shaking her stopped. The heat from the fires dissipated. Alice's room felt like it was shot up into the air, and then rapidly fell. The spell faded away almost as quickly as it had started. Alice opened the door, looking outside.

She was in a chessboard-like world. Her room stood behind her as its own house, the only visible landmark. It was barren. Alice sighed, then looked again in her grimoire. There was a new spell, one for enchanting something so it became under your control. Alice wandered back into her room, and took out a pack of playing cards.

“Well, if this is going to be like 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland',” she mused, “Why not have playing card residents?” The spell was very simple, and took almost no magical energy. When she was finished, the playing cards “looked” at her, and she smiled.

“Welcome to the world!” Alice greeted, “I am Alice. Alice... Murgatroyd. No, no, not Murgatroyd. Let's see... Margatroid! I'm Alice Margatroid. I will be your queen. It's very nice to meet you all!”

Alice spent a few days in her new Wonderland, with the card people and a new fascination for dolls keeping her occupied. There wasn't much ruling for her to do as queen, seeing as the subjects were just animate cards, but playing pretend sure was fun. All the while, she was learning to study the magic of abandon food, and was just about to begin the process when word of an attacker reached her.

“Who is it?” Alice asked gravely, then sighed, realizing that they couldn't communicate that much to her. “Nevermind. Assume your attack positions, and begin countermeasures. Don't let her get to me, if you can. Use the King of Hearts if necessary. I'll be busy preparing, just in case.” The cards flew off to go defend against the intruder. Alice opened up her grimoire, letting its power flow into her. She sat in front of the book calmly until the destruction was just outside her house. She stood up, taking the book with her.

“You finally got here,” Alice called, floating outside, “Marisa Kirisame.” She whispered the name to herself again and again, familiarizing herself with it in an attempt to know what she would need to do this time. “It's been a while,” she said with a smirk after exiting the house.

“Has it been that long?” Marisa asked. Her carefree attitude about all this angered Alice.

“I won't lose this time!!” Alice snarled, her face contorting in rage.

“Well, you're pretty confident,” the witch before her remarked.

“I've finally obtained the book that has the ultimate magics written in it,” The shorter girl informed, “And wouldn't you know, it has my name on it!” Alice's face had a smile that was just traipsing into the category of “terrible”.

“Really?” Marisa gasped, “Well, I wouldn't mind just taking a peek...” She floated menacingly towards Alice, causing the latter the dash back.

“I'll let you have a taste of it, whether you like it or not!” The duel started with Alice's laughter echoing in the empty landscape of Wonderland. Her attacks started out easy, to get Marisa used to her new power, but as she got more and more desperate, they got harder and more frantic. She fought as best as she could, even summoning familiars to use, but nothing was working. Finally, she encased herself in a magic barrier and fired rapidly at Marisa. It was to no avail. Alice lost, again.

“Looks like you can't even control that power,” Marisa shouted cockily.

“Why can't I beat you?!” Alice screeched. Wonderland began shaking. Cracks that appeared in the ground glowed red. “GET OUT OF HERE!” she screamed, “LEAVE! THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE MY WONDERLAND! NOW LOOK WHAT'S HAPPENING! I WAS PERFECTLY HAPPY BEFORE  _ YOU  _ CAME HERE! NOW WE'RE BOTH GOING TO DIE IF WE DON'T  _ LEAVE RIGHT NOW!! _ ” Despite her injuries, Alice dashed over to Marisa, yanked on her wrist, and flew up. There didn't seem to be much in the way of an exit, but there was a sort of ceiling. _ This'll work.  _ Alice thought. She blasted a hole through the material above them. Before she and Marisa could escape, however, Wonderland exploded, blasting them far away from each other and, for Alice, unto the unknown realm of Gensokyo.

 


End file.
